Memories Made of Lies | A Short Story [COMPLETE]

| Katie |

When Martin told me that he had hired a new employee, I hadn't expected him to look like this. When I thought of the name Benjamin Whitlock, I thought of a cranky seventy year old man with a bald head and hunched over back. But Benjamin Whitlock was none of these things.

First of all, he was definitely not seventy. He actually looked around my age, so early twenties maybe. And he was definitely not hunched. He nearly towered over me with his over six feet of height. And I wasn't short for a girl.

But what really stood out was he was definitely not ugly.

But I pushed all these thoughts out of my head and extended my hand in greeting like a normal person, trying not to give him a negative first impression. "Nice to meet you, Benjamin. I'm Katie."

He shook my hand, firm but surprisingly gentle. "Nice to meet you, too. But, please, call me Ben." His deep green eyes, a color had I never seen in anyone's irises before, twinkled with earnest amusement.

I smiled, glancing away to hide a blush creeping to my face.

"Well, I'll leave you with Katie, here, and she'll show you the ropes. Sound good?" Martin suggested, looking back and forth in between us.

"Sounds great, Martin. Thanks." Ben smiled, lighting up the room.

Martin nodded, turned on his heel, and got back to work.

"So, where do you want to start? Cash register, stocking, pricing, cleaning, all the fun stuff?"

Ben shrugged, gazing around like everything was interesting to him. "Whatever works for me."

"Great." I grinned. "Follow me."

I headed toward the cafe, knowing exactly what I would start. Sam stood at the counter, washing out a blender container, one of her dreadlocks falling down into her face. She blew at it, but it stubbornly replaced itself in her eyes.

"Hey, Sam." I sent her a tiny wave.

She looked up from the sink, sending a small smile my way. "Hey." Her eyes flicked to Ben, who stood behind me, and her spine straightened and her smile became more of a smirk. "And who might you be?"

I rolled my eyes, holding back a laugh. Of course she only cared about the hot guy behind me. Not that Ben was hot, but... Whatever. "Samantha, this is Ben. Ben, Samantha."

Ben nodded, sending her one of his dazzling smiles. Sam returned the gesture but added on a wink.

"Oookay, let's get back to business." I playfully scowled at her which she returned as I pulled Ben around the counter and toward the back. She always made things way weirder than they needed to be.

As I pushed through a large metal door, Ben asked, "Which subject, exactly, are we starting with?"

I stopped in front of the huge industrial sized fridge that held all the dairy and fruit products the cafe would use over the next week. Bending over a bin that sat on the floor next to it, I pulled out two pairs of bulky rubber gloves. "The cleaning." I smiled.

He quirked a dark brown eyebrow, but his face was still light with curiosity and amusement. "What exactly are we cleaning?"

"That," I said, smacking the blue pair of gloves against his shoulder, "is the fun part. You see, you showed up at the perfect time because Martin wants us to clean out the fridge before the landlord of the building comes by for his monthly inspection and Sam is stubborn as a mule and won't help me. So you and I are going to spend your first day on the job cleaning it."

He took the gloves hesitantly as I slipped on my yellow pair. "So for my first day working at a bookstore, I'm going to clean a fridge?"

I chuckled. "Precisely."